For Remembrance
by Kaetien
Summary: After a cruel encounter with orcs, a close friend's life hangs in the balance. Barely recovered from his own wounds and still feeling the pain, how much will Legolas sacrifice for the sake of friendship? Please R&R.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the characters herein; they are all property of JRR Tolkien. I make no profit out of writing this, and no infringement was intended.

**A/N:** My first fan-fiction. This started as a ficlet that somehow worked its way into this fic. Mainly a fic about healing, sacrifice and friendship.

This may yet become an Alternative Universe (AU) fic, depending on how it goes, but if so the AU-ness will not be so apparent until the later chapters. 

Try and bear with me if there are some delays in posting.

Please read and review!

**Rated:** PG - No slash or romance.

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**For Remembrance**

**Chapter I: Within The Darkness**  


_I have witness the cruelty of captivity through the eyes of another. I have seen how the horrors, told and yet untold, may prey upon a fragile mind once so strong. The past is not a memory - it is the essence of our souls. It is no shadow passing in our wake; the strength of memory envelops our minds and drives us to become who we are. I have seen it heal, as too have I seen it destroy. I fear that I may once again be forced to stand, unable to help, as the foul poison of brutal memories claim the spirit of another whom I love._

_I watched as my mother was returned to Imladris, and I wept for the wounds inflicted upon her body and soul. I could not look upon her without seeing the scars of torment in her eyes. Those eyes that I loved. Those eyes that once danced in laughter and glowed in the soft twilight. Those eyes that became as empty pools of unshed tears and endless grief._

_My father and my brothers felt that pain as bitterly as I, the helplessness that drove so deeply into our hearts. Imladris grieved as she faded and passed into the West. _

_I have lost both my mother and father to the Sea. And by my choice - by this mortality - I shall never again see them, save perhaps as I wander the pathless waters of dreams._

_My brothers they linger here still, bound to Middle-Earth by their ties of friendship and camaraderie. But for how long? None can foresee it. They may yet grow weary of this land and sail into the West. For even through their love of this world, they are not bound here as I._

_There is another whom for years I have loved as a brother, drawn together by our love and friendship with one mortal. By the Valar, let me not lose him too._

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Blood. The air was thick with blood, the foul stench of gore filling his nostrils. His stomach contracted slightly in revulsion, a shudder passing through the sluggish thoughts swirling in his mind like autumn's leaves. Dimly, he was aware of pain ripping across his back as he was dragged along the rough ground, and the lancing agony of an arrow wound in his shoulder. 

_No. _

A soft moan fell from cold lips as he struggled to open his eyes. He could not. Dizzy with blood loss, the weight of exhaustion pressed heavily upon his consciousness, yet he knew he could not sleep. Not now.

_It could not be true._

His instincts screamed a shrill warning, but his ears were all but deaf to the sound. There was nothing but the weariness, threatening to render him captive to the abyss of sleep; never had he felt so utterly drained and weak. The precision and deadly accuracy that he had honed for thousands of years, the power in the fluidity of his supple movements; where were they now? All endurance had long since fled his limbs.

_Surely these were lies, nothing more than the torments of a weary mind._

His hands felt numb, circulation of the blood restricted by the tightness of the coarse ropes encircling his wrists. The sound of many pounding feet was like thunder to his ears, attacking the weakened state of his mind.

_No!_

His tunic was soaked with blood; he could feel the sticky wetness matting golden tresses and streaking his pale skin. Poison flooded through his veins, stealing his strength; his spirit, ravaging his mind and sending his thoughts into a disoriented jumble -

_NO!_

His eyes snapped open, and the breaths that rasped harshly in his throat were short and ragged. The sheets felt clammy with sweat, and were tangled about his frame. He could have screamed then, as he clawed vainly for some semblance of humanity and peace in those horrific memories. Panic flared through his mind, a maelstrom of emotion warred across shadowed and gaunt features, hidden in the darkness of the room. 

As he gathered his bearings, the tension in his muscles managed to ease, and the stricken breathing slowed and regulated, though his eyes were yet wild. 

The Elf quietened, and finally blinked, staring with unseeing eyes at the curtains drawn over ornate windows. He was safe, for the moment at least. Safe until sleep claimed him once more, and he was dragged from the precipice into the jagged wells of memory wherein the shadows waited.

The sleeping draught had done aught to ease the nightmares. He had taken the draught as a reassurance to Aragorn that he would sleep, if only a brief respite. Time had healed his physical wounds well, but the pain remained undiminished.

Legolas stirred, unfurling and sitting on the side of the bed. A slender hand reached up and trailed probing fingers along the flesh of his cheek, an almost unconscious motion, as he was lost too in preoccupied thought and detachment. 

Isolation acted as a filter for the shock, for the humiliation and anger that smouldered in his eyes whenever he felt a curious gaze upon his features. He hated not the fact that his face would forever bear that scar; rather it was the fear that he would forever bear the mark of captivity, a prisoner to memory.

He stood slowly and crossed the room, settling into a chair by the window. Legolas stared through the narrow gap between the curtain and wall, his pupils contracting slightly. The sunlight was as warm caress against his skin, breathing some life into his pallor where it pooled golden on his flesh.

Perhaps there was yet hope.

_To Be Continued..._

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**A/N:** Please review! I'm desperate for any comments at all. This is the first non-humour fan-fiction that I've written, so it would be great if you could drop a little review to tell me what I'm doing right/wrong, and what I need to work on! 


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